John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
There are not many who will disagree that John was writing about Jesus, referring to Him as the Word. But, there is a group of people who will disagree with the translation. According to the Jehovah’s Witness and their translation, it should read “and the Word was a god.”
It is upon their translation of this verse that they have established that Jesus was one of many gods, of which they can be too.
This may go a little deep, but hold on. It works.
I received a paper from a Jehovah’s Witness which gave other bible translations which I had never heard of who translated “a god” in John 1:1. The authors of Should You Believe in the Trinity? on page 28 explained that in the Greek, given the grammatical circumstance, the translator has the freedom to use the article “a” if they feel that it fits with Theos (the greek word for God), even when the article “a” is not written.
Therefore, by their own argument, this verse can not be used to prove whether Jesus was God or a god. It’s up to the translators!
What about John 1:18 where the sentence begins with Theos with no definite article, just like John 1:1. Why did your translators choose to change their rules?
If they translate “a god” in John 1:1 why did they not translate it the same way in John 1:6 or John 1:12 or John 1:13? Not only are these verses in the same book, written by the same author, but they are also in the same chapter. Should we pick-and-choose with God’s Word which rule we use?
Again, let’s see how scripture explains itself. In John 20:28 Thomas makes this declaration, “My Lord and My God!”
Here is where it gets really crazy. Although most of the New Testament was written in Greek with the word Theos used for God, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have gone through and picked out which ones they want to translate as Jehovah and which ones they translate as god. Of course it was John 1:1 and John 20:288 they chose not to translate the word Theos as Jehovah. Something screwy going on here!
In Isaiah 9:6, a verse which most every accepts is about Jesus, He is called the “Mighty God”. The answer they gave me is that this is not Jehovah, just a god. But what about Jeremiah 32:8 where Jehovah is also called the “Might God”? If both Jesus and Jehovah are “Mighty God” what separates them?
And, I can not forget about Matthew 1:23 which says “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” This is a quote from Isaiah 7:14. Immanuel does not mean “a god with us.”
Let’s stay in the Word!
Filed under: Misrepresented | Tagged: deceived, false teaching, Jehovah's Witness, Jesus |
Word Nuggets 
This blog’s great!! Thanks :).
Excellent Pastor! I had a visit from them the other day. I was polite, but once again I thought about the fact I have wanted to compile a list of things that they obviously got wrong (sorry to sound so… mean) and sit them down and explain it to them. I know there is someone who wrote a book on this and it can be used for this purpose, but I have forgotten the author. Well, it’s on the list of things for the future.
It’s always amazed me that people will argue so much about the translation and try to use it to further their own agendas. The Word is the Word and if you REALLY want to understand it, learn Hebrew and Greek and see for yourself. For me, I trust in the WORD, period, and I have used several “translations” or versions, such as the KJV, the NKJV, etc, to gleam different points. But all in all, what you said can not be refuted from where I stand. The Trinity is sacred, Jesus is Lord and God is Lord.
In trying to understand the Trinity, I always look at it like this. God is so immense, that he has different aspects to handle different things he wants to accomplish. Just like in the old Testament, you see where He is a Loving and Just God and other times you see Him as an Angry and Jealous God.
God is God. But to make himself HUMAN, he separeated part of Himself, as much as a human body could handle, and that was Jesus. The Holy Spirit is yet another face of Him, to handle specific situations, which happen to be a LOT.
Don’t know if that makes sense, but there ya go.
It’s very difficult talking with JW’s for the simple reason I don’t read the Bible to try to find ways to prove others wrong; for “ammunition” if you will. I read to learn, for comfort, for hope. I have a very dear friend who is JW, and we can talk about anything BUT God. It’s sad. I refuse to study just to prove someone wrong. Love prevails.
Thank you Debbie 🙂
That’s what we are supposed to do debbie. read for our benifit, to learn more about our Lord.
I will only respond to the post title. A woman gave birth to Jesus. Do we think God was so taken with her that she gave God a child? What does that say about God? I am a man, I know the enthusiasm that gives opportunity to birth. Do we really think this is how God feels and then a child is born?
My friend, are we now going to make God like man who has to do things our way? Nowhere do we have a picture from scripture that God and Mary had sex. If God can cause cancer to fall off of my wife’s face after we prayed then He surely has the power to cause Mary to be pregnant without sex. If I can believe that He spoke creation into existance then surely He can speak life into Mary.
The point is that God was so taken in with YOU that He gave Mary a child within her. Don’t make God out to be self-centered as man is. This child later went on to say that before Abraham was He is. Paul says that He emptied Himself to become a man. This was God’s solution to man’s sin.
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
Here is that same verse in the Message Translation: This Christian life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some things are clear enough: He appeared in a human body, was proved right by the invisible Spirit, was seen by angels. He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples, believed in all over the world, taken up into heavenly glory.
I would believe that from your username you would be an individual who loves mysteries. If that is the case, allow me to challenge you to search out the mystery as to why God had to come to us in the flesh. As another challenege, do a wordsearch on the word mystery in the bible.
A mystic surely does not want to put things into the natural, right? Then try not to equate God with our natural feelings and you my find a more mysterious God that is so deep the we will spend a lifetime in knowing Him.
Well I live about 2 mins from a jehovah witness place. They came to my door only once! and have never been back because I told them I only read the KJV, which is the only true word of GOD! They read from the niv. It says in Revelation 22:19 “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,God shall take away his part out of the book of life,and out of the holy city,and from the things which are written in this book.” JW think we are living on the new earth, sorry but the Lord is coming back and this old earth will be destroyed.